276 Dr. A. Gerstacker on the Geographical Distribution 



almost appear that the Bee existed in Northern Germany either 

 originally or at least before any known direct intercourse of 

 that region with Rome. Unfortunately, nothing is to be learnt 

 upon this subject from Csesar or Tacitus ; but honey is mentioned 

 by Diodorus Siculus*, a contemporary of Csesar and Augustus, 

 as being employed among the Gauls in the preparation of a 

 beverage. Shortly after the time of Diodorus, we find in Pliny 

 statements which, as they indicate with some degree of certainty 

 the existence of wild Bees in Germany, are of more consequence 

 in the present investigation. Pliny mentions f a swarm of Bees 

 which settled in the camp of Drusus just before the successful 

 battle near Arbalo ; and in another place J, when speaking of 

 the goodness of honey from different districts, he describes a 

 remarkably large honeycomb from Germany, which was 8 feet 

 in length. That the Bees producing this swarm and honeycomb 

 could have been introduced by the Romans is negatived by the 

 shortness of the time elapsed since their access to Germany, and 

 still more by the habits of the Romans themselves ; nor is any 

 such introduction of Bees mentioned by Pliny, whilst his 

 statements and those of Diodorus involuntarily show that the 

 Romans, on their first acquaintance with Gaul and Germany, 

 found the Bee already there. From the statements of Pytheas, 

 quoted by Strabo§, indeed, it would appear that honey was 

 known in Northern Germany (Thule) at a much earlier period, 

 namely, in the time of Alexander the Great (b.c. 300). The 

 position of Thule is doubtful ; but Pytheas probably derived his 

 information from merchants of Marseilles, who visited the shores 

 of the Baltic in search of amber. The introduction of the Bee 

 into these northern regions by voyagers, whether Phoenician or 

 Massilian, although not impossible, is very improbable, from the 

 character of those people and the difiiculty of transport. Hence, 

 weighing all the historical evidence, it seems more probable that 

 the Bee is indigenous in Germany than that it has been intro- 

 duced by civilization ; and this view is supported by a still more 

 important circumstance, namely, the difiierence of our northern 

 race of Bees from those of the southern and south-eastern parts 

 of Europe and the bordering parts of Asia and Africa. Since 

 the introduction of the Italian Bee into Germany, it has been 

 sufficiently proved that, when it does not mix with the dark- 

 coloured northern Bees, it remains perfectly constant in its cha- 

 racters : consequently it would be quite impossible that, even 

 after the lapse of many years, the unicolorous northern Bee 

 should have been developed from the variegated Italian form. 



* Bibliothecse Historicae lib. v. cap. 26. 



+ Lib. xi. cap. 18. % Lib. xi. cap. 14. 



i Rerum Geographicarum lib. iv. § 5. 



